Anyone give me some jump advise?

[dgbissel]

I've been having trouble with bigger jumps (anywhere from 10ft to 20ft for me) recently and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. When I get in the air on occasion my body starts rotating and my back ends up being faced downwind and I end up busting my ass. I don't think I'm rotating my body before the jump either. Does anyone have any advise? Maybe something I could do with the kite to line myself back up?
-Bizel

[jaco]

Hey...i'm having the same problem. My guess is that I am really jumping off the back tail of my board when I'm holding my edge and initiating a spin. Anyone have any other ideas?

[Whitey]

Once you leave the water look at your landing spot. Do not look up at the kite. Your body will follow where your head goes. If you look up at the kite you will most likely spin around and end up hitting the water with your back, but you will have a very good view of your kite as it falls out of the sky.

Another helpful thing to do is push your board out in front of you after you leave the water so that when you are looking at your landing spot dead down wind of your take off point your board will be in view and will be between you and your kite when you hit the water. The aerodynamic drag of the board out infront of you will also help keep your back to the wind with the board downwind of you and between you and the kite at landing. Enjoy

[kite-4-life]

Whitey is right on about spotting your landing, experiment at lower heights before going big, get timing and edge release right first while envisioning the arc and peak, of your jump as well as the landing. Don't steer away too much from the kite, you may be steering yourself into a spin, or doing an unplanned "alley oop" by not edging away enough at takeoff.(going "under" the kite and it twists you around) That might be from 2 much speed also.
Bend you knees when you jump,do a grab with your back hand and hold it until after you peak, it adds stability.
Move on to something else for a while and come back to it sometimes helps.
Happy Boosting!

[oldschool]

one of our local riders (Chris) broke both heels at Lido Beach

not sure if he was jumping or just lost it but use the beach and shallow water for entering and exiting and you'll be kiting for lots more years

OS

[dgbissel]

I appreciate the advise guys. I'm sure it will help my technique a lot. I'm out with an knee injury from riding Monday so I won't be on the water for a week or two, but I will definitely keep it in mind.

That injury was totally worth it... Launched a jump off a wave at North beach... Huge jump... about 20 feet from what I've been told (BTW- thats big for me, humor me for a moment). Came down on the jump wrong and twisted my knee. Structural cartilage damage is what the doctor says, off for two weeks... totally worth it :)
-Bizel

[Jake]

I've got a question on jumping really big. When I jump I move the kite backwards to 10 or 11 then forward to 1 or 2. On some of my big jumps (20+) my timing is either off or I need to move the kite more as I've either landed with the kite down low (pretty hard landing) or if I don't move it enough and I land with little or no forward speed. Any suggestions on changing my technique for really big jumps or just work on my timing?

Thanks!!!